New staff have been added to a restructured trade sales team as the Globus family of brands, incorporating Avalon Waterways, Globus Journeys and Cosmos Tours, reinforces its focus on agents.
A new travel agent training portal is expected to be operational this summer together with a series of agent fam trips and incentives across the three brands.
Under the changes, Jayne Lambert moves from AmaWaterways to become key account manager to oversee and develop national accounts and consortia at head office level for touring brands Cosmos and Globus. She has previously held roles with G Adventures, Hurtigruten and Kuoni.
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Kelly Calver has moved internally to become key account manager for Avalon Waterways with a similar remit to Lambert, also supporting specialist cruise agencies.
Karen Milward joins from Premier Holidays as new business development manager for the south, having previous experience at Wendy Wu Tours, Club Med and Travel 2.
Ryan Readman completes the field sales team, joining as business development manager for the north, having formerly held roles with Ambassador Cruise Lines, Scenic and Emerald, as well as having worked overseas for Contiki and Trafalgar Tours.
Sarah Makewell makes an internal move to take up an inside sales support role, responsible for all of Globus’ agency sales activity including agent events, fam trips and incentives.
The new structure has been formulated by UK sales director Phil Shipman, who said: “This new trade team is all about giving agents exactly what they need across the different sectors of touring and cruising.
“We have always been totally committed to the trade, which makes up a huge proportion of our UK sales and we are now taking this commitment one step further with this new team.
“I am absolutely delighted to be working with this incredibly talented group of professionals who bring with them experience and expert knowledge from across the travel sector – all of which will enhance our trade support offering and take sales for Globus’ products to the next level.”
He added: “Splitting our head office account management into touring and river gives both Kelly and Jayne the opportunity to focus and really drive sales in their respective fields, whilst Karen and Ryan will capitalise on their high street relationships to support agents in selling our award-winning brands when out on the road.”
Globus brands also unveiled new Douro and Bordeaux routes with Avalon Waterways and a range of tours available across Cosmos Tours and Globus Journeys.
Avalon Waterways last week christened its new 262-foot, 102-passenger Avalon Alegria – which has been built exclusively to sail the Douro River and is the first ‘suite ship’ from the brand to sail in Portugal.
UK managing director Lesley Taylor said: “We are excited to announce our enhanced trade-facing team. This further aligns us as a brand to the significance of supporting travel agents and therefore increasing our ongoing sales.
“2024 is a very significant time for the Globus family of brands, with a new ship, new tours, sailings and customer service developments in the pipeline.”
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